Orphan Black 4x02
Wow, this season promises to be heavy on the body horror. Which I knew from the trailers, making this the only time I was glad to be spoiled by trailers, since they prepared me for it. I'm pretty darn squicky about body horror, but I think the concept of Orphan Black makes body horror natural, if not inevitable. And the show has certainly had its share of gross out moments. Mark burning off his tattoo with a blowtorch, complete with a closeup of the bubbling skin comes to mind. But there's a difference between being shocking because that's where the story goes and being shocking just to be shocking. We'll have to see where this season falls.
Since season one, I've been wishing for a Felix-centric storyline, one that was about him, and not his connection to one clone or another. It looks we're getting that now, and I'm excited. It makes so much sense that Felix would go looking for his birth family. He and Sarah both used to be orphans, but she's discovered this huge family, and now they know she's even related to their shared foster mother. Felix wants something that's uniquely his.
And Sarah, of course, doesn't get it. She can only reiterate how Felix fits into her life and thinks that should be enough for him. Because Sarah's a selfish person, and there's no getting around that she takes Felix for granted. Sarah's selfishness is something I appreciate, in the sense that it makes her a richer character, but it does hurt to watch sometimes. The very way she plays bait and switch with Felix, making it sound like she just wants to get a drink and catch up, then taking him to Club Neolution so he can get her inside.
I do understand why Sarah would feel that Felix's search for his birth parents is an invalidation of her (and Mrs. S and Kira's) relationship with him, but she can't see outside herself to understand why Felix feels alienated. Felix isn't searching for his "real family," he's searching for something that's special about him.
It's clear Felix has always had the unenviable position of being the child who Mrs. S didn't have to worry about. The clone conspiracy is simply an old truth on a much larger scale: Sarah's problems take priority. And of course the clone conspiracy is a huge deal, and it's a problem Sarah never asked for. But that doesn't help Felix.
(Writing all of this has made me love Sarah even more. She's such an incredible character.)
Interestingly, it seems that Felix has been confiding to Alison about searching for his birth family. This hints at something else I've wanted since the beginning, which is one of the clones (especially Sarah or Alison) reaching out to Felix and helping him like he's helped them. And Alison's friendship with Felix has long been one her best qualities, because Felix is everything Alison fears. He's loud, he's strange, and he has no interest in respectability or propriety. But they love each other anyway, and I love that she compliments his art his episode, even as it's so clear that it's not her taste.
Alison is mainly dealing with Helena, though, rather than Felix. And Helena is even less respectable than Felix. But while I don't doubt that Helena's sloppy housekeeping habits would drive Alison up the wall no matter what, it's plain that Alison's main issue is her resentment toward Helena's ability to bear children. Now, Alison has children. And she loves them. They would not be anymore hers if they were related to her genetically. But infertility hurts. There are a lot of issues that infertility can bring up. Helena gets to experience an aspect of parenting that Alison never will, and that on its own could be painful. And there's no way that Alison's infertility has never made her feel abnormal, which is the worst thing for Alison to experience.
But I find it interesting how Alison expresses that resentment. These are the best lines of the episode, and possibly the series. But as hilarious as they are, they're also telling. Alison is a violent person. Killing Aynsley, the way she threatened Felix with a gun near the beginning of season one, even her lines last episode about her new gun. Alison doesn't go around committing violent acts all the time, but her mindset is violent. But Alison denies her violence. Helena is also violent, but she's violent in such an obvious way that Alison is able to distance herself from Helena. (You know who isn't a violent person? Sarah. She will react with violence, if pushed to an extreme, but she responds to violence with a horror that Alison and Helena never manage.)
I can't help feeling there are logistical issues with Helena playing Alison to get her pregnancy checked. I understand the arguments for. It explains why a woman with with Alison's face is going to the local doctor with Donnie. And she's using Alison's health card, which may be a big thing. (I confess I have zero idea how Canadian healthcare works except that it's less of a dystopic shit show than American healthcare. Here in the US getting to use someone's insurance would be an excellent reason to impersonate them.) But what happens if someone see "Alison" at the obstetrician? (Ha ha, I had to google "pregnancy doctor" to remember what they're called.) We know how gossipy Alison's community is. And, honestly, I think there are very few people who would look at Alison and Helena and connect them. Between the hair, the makeup, the accent, and the mannerisms, people would have to know Alison extremely well to notice Helena has her face.
But Helena's having twins! Of course that would make her happy. I'm wondering if Helena's pregnancy means she'll get a softer storyline this season. If so, she's earned it. Honestly, I was getting tired of Helena being held by shadowy groups that depersonalized and tortured her.
Donnie remains a schlub, though I will grant him than anyone would have difficulty gracefully playing off Helena, especially when she's trying to flirt... or something.
I find myself with little to say about Cosima's storyline except that the lair under the comic book shop kind of stretches my disbelief, even as I totally want one. I'm glad they're dealing with Cosima's illness in a semi-realistic manner, and haven't just dropped it once it stopped offering major story opportunities.
But Cosima brings up the questions that's on many minds. Is Delphine alive? I myself suspect she is, just because they're making such a big thing of it. But, and we're about to get into major unpopular opinion territory here, I kind of hope she isn't. I know, I know! Don't kill me. I know I should want her to be alive, if only to stem the flow of dead queer women on TV. And my reason is kind of petty. But the thing is, with the way Cosima/Delphine is such a show OTP, I feel like Delphine dying is the only way to end it. I think Cosima/Delphine is fascinating relationship that's been used to tell great stories. I also think it's majorly fucked up and unhealthy, and Cosima needed to get out for her own good. The relationship dangerously blurs multiple lines, including doctor/patient and researcher/subject, and Delphine has never had a problem overriding Cosima's wishes if Delphine thought it was best.
I mean, Delphine could be alive, and she and Cosima could remain broken up, and I'd be good with that too. I actually really like Delphine, so it'd be great to have her back.
And that's my super unpopular opinion that possibly reveals me as a terrible person!
But my not at all unpopular opinion is that it was great to get even more Beth flashbacks. I assume we'll get even more, because Beth saw and/or did something while she wore that blonde wig that finally drove her over the edge.
Random observations:
Kira knew Neolution was coming before Sarah (or the audience) saw any sign of them. More hints that Kira is not quite normal?
"Shii--take mushrooms!" is my new favorite Alison swear.
I didn't actually like the first Orphan Black comic series, so when the Helsinki prologue series came out, I made the extremely painful decision not to get it. But now there's apparently hypothesizing that M.K. is a clone who secretly survived Helsinki, so it looks like I'll have to catch up after all.
This entry was originally posted at http://veleda-k.dreamwidth.org/459434.html. Please consider commenting there.